Highly multiplexed in situ imaging cytometry assays have made it possible to study the spatial organization of numerous cell types simultaneously. We have addressed the challenge of quantifying complex multi-cellular relationships by proposing a statistical method which clusters local indicators of spatial association. Our approach successfully identifies distinct tissue architectures in datasets generated from three state-of-the-art high-parameter assays demonstrating its value in summarizing the information-rich data generated from these technologies.
Keywords: R; imaging; spatial analysis; statistics.
© 2023 The Authors. Cytometry Part A published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.